While a bit outside our typical coverage area we’ve got snow on the brain and Squaw Valley has been sold to Colorado based KSL Capital Partners which plans to invest $50 million in the resort over the next three to five years.
Current base on the mountain: between fifty (50) and seventy (70) inches.
∙ Squaw Valley USA [squaw.com]

Comments from “Plugged-In” Readers

One of my pals reported after skiing there yesterday that he was amazed that one of the lifts that was on wind hold actually opened a few hours later. That almost never happened in the old days. We had suspected in the past that once a lift was placed on wind hold that they sent the crew home to save on payroll.
So Squaw might actually become a skiers mountain again. Now if they could just put back all those trees that were illegally cut down …

My favorite mountain. Except for all the wind. Which is a result of all those illegally felled trees.
Despite being one of the few resorts that welcomed snowboarders in the early days of the sport (80s to early 90s), Squaw has been a skiers mountain for quite some time. There are way more boarders at the other resorts.

Season passes were dramatically reduced last year (from 1700 to the 350-500 range) so it is more affordable these days. But, now there are more amateurs than ever! Lines are long and the potential for collisions has increased dramatically. I had some close calls last year. This year I bought a pass at Alpine and wear a helmet.

joh – Maybe I used the wrong term, but by “skiers mountain” I didn’t mean a place that attracted a higher proportion of skiers vs. boarders. Rather I meant a mountain that put alpine snow sports as its priority, regardless of whether you hurtle down the hill on one or two slippery slabs of wood. Contrast that with places that offer an array of activities to guests : dining, shopping, video arcades, ice skating, spa facilities, etc. So why keep the lifts operating at maximum when your guests have the option of a massage and hot tub ? Squaw and Flatstar are good examples. Next door to Squaw is Alpine which has almost nothing but alpine sports. Very similar terrain and weather but a completely different experience. That too seems to be changing as I think Alpine also changed hands recently.
The best skiers mountains have no facilities at all, but you have to shell out the big bucks for the helicopter ride and guide.

Skied Squaw the last three days; anyone that’s worked there more than a few years has been singing “ding-dong, the witch is dead” all day long.
If you’re in a SS speculative frame of mind many of the closets they call condos in the village are being sold out of foreclosure as are some of the other properties in the valley. New ownership = new opportunities?

I just glanced at some of the listing for the village at squaw. Does anyone know or remember how much these things sold for initially? e.g. what was the average or range for a 1br, 2br, 3br in the village a few years back?

I was up in Squaw Valley for Thanksgiving and this was the best Thanksgiving snow I have ever seen (most years there is no snow at all). We left the Valley at 7:00 am this morning (after sweeping 6″ of fresh snow off the car) and made it home without hitting any traffic (averaging about 50 mph on 89 and 80 in the snow passing a lot of 2WD cars chugging along with chains). Almost everybody in the Valley is happy the Cushing family has sold the resort…

“The real bomb here is that unlike the others, Squaw owns most of their land.”
Which is a great aspect for the new owners of Squaw but does nothing for most skiers who could care less whether or not the resort owns the land beneath their boards. And it works against experienced backcountry skiers since Squaw prohibits out of bounds skiing. Next door at Alpine the boundary lines are open creating a lot of accessible terrain for those with the skills and knowledge to keep out of trouble.
Maybe the new owners of Squaw will revisit their boundary policy. There could be interesting possibilities beyond the red tape.